THE WHITE ANTS. 189 



one right feeling without turning out another ! To one 

 whose sympathies were properly adjusted, what could give 

 a truer and profounder satisfaction than the sight of so 

 much potential mischief being nipped in the bud, such a 

 rolling river of future destruction being staunched at its 

 very fountain-head ? Now that I think of it, what a crop 

 of wholesome and righteous feelings I might have raised 

 many a time while watching such a scene, especially when 

 the swarm was large, and the hour about sunset, so that the 

 bats and owls, as well as kites and crows, joined the great 

 crusade, washing out in some degree the scandal of their 

 past lives. Yet I fear the practical result of the most whole- 

 sale slaughter of white ants amounts to nothing. They can 

 spare a million lives much more easily than any one can 

 spare time and strength to destroy them, and those that 

 remain are neither reformed nor deterred. Nothing either 

 reforms or deters them. A copious use of kerosine oil 

 would doubtless drive them out of the house altogether, but 

 not till long after it had driven me out. It is consolatory 

 to know that they will not cross over glass, and a box on 

 pedestals made of the bottoms of beer-bottles is absolutely 

 safe. 



Ail the great men who have assisted to discover or 



